Sundered Soul: A Wuxia/Xianxia Cultivation Novel

by Rick Scott

  “You’ll come with me now.”

  From the corner of his eye, Kenji spotted Master Hu Dong battling the fire-wielding woman. The two mystic warriors were both hanging aloft in the air, spheres of glowing Qi surrounding them. Torrents of fire flashed from the woman’s palms, but Master Hu Dong countered with blasts of water and ice. The elemental battle continued at high speed, both of them jumping from rooftop to rooftop as they traded blows. The woman seemed to be in retreat, but then Kenji noticed she was merely leading him towards the direction of the healing house and her comrades.

  No…Shinoto would not be safe there!

  If she is even still alive.

  The thought gutted him and he struggled against whatever was constraining him again.

  “I’ve waited long for this,” the general said, dragging Kenji towards the edge of the village. “Such a pain you were to find.”

  Kenji glared at the general. Amikazu…he recalled his name now. Chief Wu had mentioned sending him the letter directly when the demon had attacked. A new sickness boiled within his gut. The general wasn’t fighting the Tsu warriors or assisting his men. In fact, he seemed interested in only one thing.

  “You sent those men, didn’t you?” Kenji hissed through clenched teeth. “You made them come and destroy our village. You sent them to come look for me!”

  “That matters not now,” Amikazu said. “You’ll soon be as dead as the rest of them.”

  Kenji struggled against his own body, willing it to move, but whatever grip the general had about his neck seemed to be causing his paralysis. Hatred seethed from within him. This was the man responsible for everything. The one who had destroyed his village. Killed his father. Perhaps even killed Shinoto. His stomach churned at the thought. But then his grief quickly turned to rage. Amikazu would pay. He would pay for all of it!

  Heavens…give me strength…!

  Kenji focused on that box again. Whatever it was, it reacted to the sickness in his doma. And if it could cause Amikazu pain, then it would be worth every ounce of his own pain to see it visited upon the general full-bore. Kenji closed his eyes and did the one thing he was warned never to do.

  Opening his mind’s eye, he viewed the great river suddenly blocked by a dam. He willed the Qi around him to flow through his meridians, concentrating at his doma. Immediately his mouth filled with blood as a white-hot pain lanced through his stomach.

  Amikazu cried out and suddenly fell to his knees. Kenji kept it up, screaming as his own pain increased, but causing the general to writhe with the same pain. The box around his neck glowed red-hot and began seeping Qi that flowed out of it and straight into Kenji’s doma. The pain was exquisite, like lances of fire tearing into his soul.

  Finally the general’s hand released from about his neck and Kenji fell to the ground.

  He tried to move but found himself still paralyzed, this time from his own doing. His doma felt like a stomach swollen to capacity, too painful to even budge. Behind him Amikazu cried out, hands tearing at his hair.

  “Get out of my head! Get out!”

  Kenji struggled to look behind him, to try to find Mei Ling and Shinoto. The battle still raged between the mystic warriors. The witch had sided with her comrades now and was facing off against Master Hu Dong and Olja alone. The bodies of the lieutenants were already on fire, both of them dead.

  His vision began to tunnel as he looked for Shinoto. His heart stopped for a moment when he didn’t see her, but then soared once again when he saw the girl next to the healing house, being cradled by Mei Ling.

  Thank the heavens!

  The doctor was healing Shinoto with one of the stones, but she still hadn’t stirred, it seemed. He needed to reach them. Get them to safety. Even now the witch was throwing balls of fire that crashed into the walls of the healing house after being deflected by Hu Dong. His vision began to darken as he saw Olja taking on the other two sellblades at once, her arms and feet flying as she blocked their attacks with her gauntlets and armored shins. He had to move… he had to do something before they all fell prey to that witch’s fire and died.

  Something grabbed him by the leg and he felt himself being pulled across the ground. He craned his neck to see a young boy dragging him as easily as if he himself were but a child. The boy turned about and Kenji was stricken with shock yet again.

  “Chet Fai?”

  “Not a word,” he said as he hurried along, exuding Qi.

  As they got past a few abandoned houses, the pain within his doma began to recede. Chet Fai then stopped outside of a small barn and then hauled him by his waist, dragging him inside. He closed the door too and then turned about.

  “Where is my sister?” he said.

  “By the healing house, with Doctor Mei Ling,” Kenji said, trying to regain his breath and his bearings. “Need to get to her. Before that witch….”

  Chet Fai nodded. “I’ll go.”

  The boy turned to leave but Kenji stopped him. “Wait!”

  He paused. “What?”

  “They’re too strong for us. We need a plan.” Kenji rolled to his side and removed his pack. “The general is the one who leads them…if we can stop him, we might have a chance.”

  “You’re lucky I was able to even pull you away from him. You were both surrounded by some strange kind of Qi.”

  “Yes,” Kenji said. “And my thanks, by the way.”

  Chet Fai only nodded. “What happened? Both of you looked in pain.”

  “Too long to explain now.” Kenji withdrew several sheets of glyph parchment from his pack along with his brush and the length of red thirty-year rope. He began writing with swift stokes, forming the words of the script. “I need you to imbue these.”

  “What?” Chet Fai said, glaring at him. “What are you planning?”

  “My father made a rope that could trap one within time itself,” Kenji said, recalling the way his father and Chief Wu had disabled the witch for a time when they had attacked Han Village. “If we can get this around the general while he’s still incapacitated outside we may have a chance. We’d then just need to get one about the witch. Olja and Master Hu Dong should be more than capable of taking care of the other two.”

  Chet Fai bit his lip as Kenji cut the rope in half and then strung the two sets of glyphs sigils within then. Kenji couldn’t recall what his father had used exactly, but with his knowledge from his notes, he was certain that what he had written would work.

  “Channel into them using your 4th, 3rd, and 1st meridian,” Kenji said as he handed Chet Fai the ropes.

  The boy exhaled. “Do we really have time for this?”

  “We’ll create more time for ourselves if we do. Trust me.”

  Chet Fai paused for a moment more, but then sat in lotus position closing his eyes. He touched the first glyph and within but a second it flashed to completion.

  “By the heavens,” Kenji said. “Your sister was right. You truly are talented.”

  “Don’t mock me,” Chet Fai said as he moved on to the next one. “You’ll break my concentration.”

  It wasn’t a mock, but Kenji remained silent as Chet Fai continued and within less than a minute he had both ropes done.

  “Now what?” he said.

  Kenji collected the ropes. “Now we pray for luck.”

  * * *

  Kenji stumbled out of the barn running towards where they’d left the general. His doma was still sore but he could at least move again now. As they returned to the spot by the end of the village, he saw he was gone.

  “Curse the fates,” Kenji said looking about. “Where is he?”

  Chet Fai pointed. “There! Back by the healing house.”

  Kenji wasted no time running in the new direction. He was happy to see the fires had all been mostly extinguished now. Several of the older students from the school and some of the villagers were using water palm techniques to douse the flames.

  The battle still raged between the three sellblades against Olja and Hu Dong, though. T
he aged schoolmaster was now stumbling across the ground, trying to defend himself against both the witch and the burly claw-wielder. Eventually the witch used a technique that bound him to the ground with fiery chains and Hu Dong cried as he sank to the ground. The claw wielder advanced, slashing across his throat, but his blades were deflected by a quick kick from Olja, sending him reeling with a flash of sparks. The big woman placed Hu Dong behind her as she now faced off against all three of the sellblades at once.

  This wasn’t good.

  “We need to hurry!” Kenji cried as he spotted General Amikazu stalking towards the conflict as well.

  He had his back to them and Kenji sped up to take advantage. If there was ever a clear chance of doing this, then now was the time. He handed Chet Fai one of the ropes as he prepared to channel into his doma. “Use it as soon as you see him drop.”

  Chet Fai nodded, running alongside him with Qinggong.

  Kenji tapped into his meridians, willing Qi into his sealed doma again. The pain struck and nearly sank him to his knees once more. He expected the general to do the same, but he continued striding ahead unhindered. Perhaps he hadn’t been close enough. Kenji staggered forward a few paces more, the pain overwhelming.

  He finally fell to the ground and Chet Fai ran past him, brandishing the rope. But the general was still moving, unabated. Red Qi poured from him and radiated outwards, resonating within Kenji’s doma.

  Something wasn’t right. He should have reacted by now.

  “Chet Fai!”

  The warning came too late as the general spun about, crouching low and catching the rope by its end as Chet Fai attempted to loop it around his ankle. “Too slow, boy.”

  He flung Chet Fai backwards by holding onto the end of the rope and whipping his arm, sending the boy sailing with the force of the spin. He slammed hard into the ground a few feet away, but managed to roll to his feet. Amikazu locked eyes on Kenji as he held the rope aloft and then incinerated it in his hand with a flash of Qi.

  “I’m wise to your rope tricks now.” Amikazu’s eyes glowed with a red pulse, in time with the same coming from the box about his neck.

  The pain in his doma increased as Amikazu stepped towards him. Kenji looked past him to Mei Ling and saw her standing with Shinoto now. The girl was back on her feet and was about to hit the general with her palm technique again.

  “Shinoto! No!”

  The beam left her hand and Amikazu spun deftly to counter it again. The dark energy grew in his palm just like before and Kenji feared what he would do with it this time. Raw determination turned into a scream as he pushed his body past the crippling pain of his doma. He surged upwards in a lunge and Amikazu’s head turned towards him just in time to catch a savage punch to his jaw.

  Pain radiated down his arm as his knuckles collided with what felt like steel. The general barely moved from the hit, but was knocked off balance and the energy within his palm discharged haphazardly in an explosion of Dark Qi that blew them both apart.

  Kenji slid on the ground tumbling, while Amikazu skidded a few paces, before flipping over once and landing onto his back. The explosion took everyone by surprise and the sellblades halted in their attack to take note of what had happened.

  “Run, Kenji!” Olja shouted, using the distraction to jump from within the midst of them with Qinggong. She stepped through the air and landed next to Shinoto, scooping the young girl into her arms before charging in Kenji’s direction. “Run! We can’t take them all!”

  Kenji tried to move, but his legs were made of stone again.

  Curse the fates!

  Chet Fai was suddenly next to him dragging him to his feet. “Come on, you cripple! Move!”

  With a strength that defied his small body, Chet Fai hauled him up and began running alongside him, pulling him along with his Qinggong.

  “Don’t let them flee!” Amikazu yelled as he rose to his feet. “Kill them! Kill them all!”

  Kenji ran, meeting up with Olja as the three sellblades mobilized to give chase behind them. Glancing over his shoulder he saw Mei Ling run across the pyre circle to aid Master Hu Dong, who had finally freed himself from the fiery chains.

  “I told you this was a bad idea!” Olja said, as she joined them. “We need to get to that boat. Which way is it?”

  “This way!” Shinoto pointed ahead to the paifang marking the edge of the village. Kenji felt his strength return as he distanced himself from Amikazu and the strange box about his neck. He didn’t know what damage he’d done to himself, but his insides filled with so much blood that he had to constantly keep spitting to rid it from his mouth.

  They passed through the archway and entered the short stretch of forest beyond. The docks housing the sloop was perhaps just a short distance away. Kenji glanced over his shoulder again and his stomach sunk as he saw Amikazu and the three sellblades already passing under the paifang behind them. They didn’t seem to be moving as fast as they once were however, a testament to Olja and her skill. Fire ignited a copse of trees to his side as the witch sent flames hurtling their way.

  “Just keep moving!” Olja cried. “Get to the boat.”

  “And then what?” Chet Fai said.

  They all looked at the boy, but no one seemed to have an answer.

  Something large and black caught the corner of Kenji’s eye. Before he could react, whatever it was struck him in his armored side with the force of a falling tree. He cried out as he went flying, tumbling hard onto the ground.

  “Kenji!” Shinoto cried.

  He righted himself just in time to see a now horse-sized spider-demon skittering across the forest floor towards him. His heart leapt. It had grown immensely since he’d seen it last, its skull-like face crowned with a single horn. Kenji crossed his arms, bracing himself for the attack, but then Olja swooped in next to him.

  With a Qi-filled yell, she laid into the demon with a spinning kick, sending it crashing into a tree. The monster hissed and howled as it broke straight through the trunk and then landed on its back some distance away. It continued to hiss as it bled black blood, flicking its spindly legs in the air, trying to right itself again.

  More trees came crashing down as Amikazu appeared, sundering tree trunks with a simple wave of his palm. The three sellblades were right behind him, brandishing their weapons as they exuded Qi.

  Olja pushed Shinoto and Chet Fai behind her and next to Kenji. “If you want them, you’ll have to come through me! And if you have any idea who I am, you’ll want to think twice.”

  Amazingly the three sellblades slowed, but Kenji could tell it was more a bluff than anything else now. Olja was breathing hard. Her body seemed to have over a thousand cuts and her skin was dripping with both blood and sweat. The spider-demon rocked back and forth, nearly on its feet again.

  They couldn’t get away from this. He looked to Shinoto and saw the fear in her eyes. He had to do something. They needed a way out. Kenji felt for the rope in his pack, wishing it were big enough to loop around Amikazu and all of his men.

  If only he’d thought to do so earlier, to have laid a trap perhaps. But something like that would have taken days to produce and a foresight he just didn’t have.

  He had mere moments to spare now.

  If only I had more time.

  Kenji looked to the rope again.

  Time was indeed all he had.

  As he stared at the rope he recalled what his father had done to him to send him back through time, pressing a glyph directly to his chest. There’d been no rope around him then, yet it worked all the same. An idea sparked. Kenji withdrew a sliver of parchment from his pack. He spat upon it with his Qi-infused blood, using it as ink just as his father had done.

  Please work….

  He wrote a single word: Wind.

  He looped the red rope around his wrist just as the demon flipped onto its spear-like legs. Amikazu and the sellblades advanced, nearly to them now, screaming with battle cries.

  “Olja, move!” he shouted as he
stood to his feet.

  Kenji endured the sharp pain from his doma as he released his Qi, willing it through the rope and into the glyph within his palm. Blood erupted from his mouth as the rope burned and crumbled about his wrist, unleashing its full power.

  By the gods…!

  The parchment flashed and then exploded in his hand, releasing a mighty gust.

  Kenji cried out as something broke within his doma and he sunk to his knees.

  His vision began to tunnel as the wind hit Amikazu and the sellblades. They froze in place midstride, even their screams trapped in silence as the power of the rope radiated throughout the forest, suspending bird and tree alike in a picturesque visage of halted time.

  Darkness then consumed him as Kenji lost consciousness and the entire world stood still.

  Chapter 42 – Aftershock

  Kenji awoke on the black beach again.

  High above him the starless sky rolled with a distant thunder. As he looked up, a creature like a great fish, with a body that seemed miles long, circled lazily through the air. Although it wasn’t a fish exactly. Its black-scaled body was more like that of a serpent, with three sets of fins along its sides. Its head, however, more resembled a fish, like a giant eel with fins.

  “What have you done?” A familiar voice drifted to him as he stood.

  He turned about to see the Bloody Duke standing atop the dark water, curved uchigatana blade in hand. Before him floated an array of glowing symbols, much like those Kenji had seen that 1st Sen use when he’d come here before. The Duke studied the symbols as he spoke to him. “Something seems to have taken a great interest in you… Kenji, was it not?”

  He looked to the Duke. “What do you mean?”

  “Perhaps Kenji is too unfamiliar,” the Duke mused. He then caused the glowing symbols to disappear with a swipe of his hand. “We do share the same blood, after all. Perhaps little brother is more fitting.”

  Kenji merely scowled. “Don’t expect the same in return. What did you mean just now? What’s taken interest in me?”